The Pete Carroll era Seahawks touchdown leaderboard

We’re two days away from a brand new season of Seattle Seahawks football, and indeed the seventh under head coach Pete Carroll. At the start of the decade, the Seahawks underwent a massive roster overhaul and were one of the worst teams to ever qualify for the playoffs. Now, they’re a perennial contender and are favored by many to at least make the Super Bowl for the third time in five years.

Out of my own curiosity, I wanted to know how many Seahawks have scored touchdowns in the Carroll era, so through unnecessary hard work (I’ll explain later), I created several tables breaking down touchdowns by receiving, rushing, special teams, defense, and then the big one is the all-time leaderboard.

All statistics here include the playoffs, and when I mean a touchdown, I mean the player has to literally be in the end zone, so quarterback touchdown passes are not included here.

We start things off with TD receptions…

Yes, believe it or not, Jermaine Kearse has the 2nd most touchdown catches of any Seahawks receiver in the Carroll era. A half-dozen of his 17 TDs came in the playoffs, which is incredible. Baldwin is in a league of his own and is the longest-tenured Seahawks player on the offense.

You’ve seen the numbers on touchdowns through the air, but what about on the ground?

This number will obviously continue to decrease as the season progresses, but Marshawn Lynch is responsible for almost 60% of all Seahawks rushing touchdowns since 2010. Christine Michael didn’t even last all of 2016 and he’s already 4th! The only players listed here who are on the 2017 roster are Wilson, Rawls, Prosise, and Lockett.

Now to the defensive side of the ball. Seattle hasn’t managed a pick-6 since the 2014 season, but surely the drought can’t extend another year can it?

Red Bryant’s rumble is still one of my favorite plays.

Onward to fumbles. Seattle’s only non-offensive touchdown of 2016 was a scoop and score by Earl Thomas.

The touchdowns by Wagner and Williams happened in 2015, while Bennett’s was on Monday night against the Saints in 2013. Somehow the Seahawks lost the other four times they returned a fumble for a touchdown.

Finally, we go to special teams. This encompasses kickoff returns, punt returns, blocked field goals or punts, and muffed punts.

The only touchdowns of Thomas’ career have come in three different ways: pick-6, fumble return, and blocked punt return.

And for the grand finale, here’s a comprehensive table of every Seahawk who has ever scored a touchdown for a Pete Carroll team.

A funny story here. The only table I did without just copying-and-pasting from Pro Football Reference was the total touchdowns, and that’s because I’m an idiot and didn’t even think about actually using their tables, thus saving me lots of time. It was only after the fact that I double-checked all my work through their system for 100% accuracy. There is, however, an error in PFR’s database, as Kennard Cox is erroneously credited with the blocked punt return TD that otherwise should belong to Earl Thomas. Cox actually blocked the punt, then Thomas picked it up and ran it in for six points.

We’ve seen 62 Seahawks get into the end zone since 2010, but how many more players will add themselves to this list? Eddie Lacy and Chris Carson figure to be the two favorites, with #5 WR Amara Darboh a distant third. What about on defense? K.J. Wright feels long overdue, and we mustn’t count out the possibility of either Cliff Avril or Frank Clark turning a strip-sack into points.

All the more reason to look forward to what could be another super season for Seattle.